


Don't Wait For Dusk

by Mika-Pika (TisMikaPika)



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Additional Warnings Apply, Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Blood, Depression, F/M, Guilt, Implied Cannibalism, Mental Breakdown, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, None of them look like high school students and no one can convince me otherwise, Not Beta Read, Reader is a BAMF, Reader-Insert, References to Supernatural (TV), Sexual Content, Starvation, Suicidal Thoughts, Violence, Wendigo Josh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-27 19:51:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12589312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TisMikaPika/pseuds/Mika-Pika
Summary: It's been a little over two weeks since the horrifying events that occurred at the Washington Estate, and the group seems to be somewhat coping with everything that's happened. All but Micheal Munroe.Lingering guilt continuously swims in the back of his mind. He can't sleep, and he's caught himself staring at nothing in particular for hours on end. His mind wanders back to the mines, back to where he abandoned Josh in a selfish attempt for his own escape. It nags at him. Crawls under his skin, like a cockroach skittering across a grimy old kitchen floor.  He can't live like this any longer, it's driving him insane.In a ridiculous attempt to somehow save himself, and to find some form of closure, Mike decides to head back to the terror that is Blackwood Mountain. Maybe, if he's lucky, he can even find out what happened to Josh. However once there, not only does he find two surprising guests, but also meets a new and mysterious stranger who may know a thing or two about creatures that go bump in the night.





	Don't Wait For Dusk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A Halloween gift for myself. There aren't that many Mike fics out in the wide inter-webs so I decided to make one of my own. I really did not like him at the beginning of the game, but he somehow stole my heart at the end. Hhaha. I hope you like it, I haven't written any kind of fan-fiction in years. Gotta start off again somewhere. :)

 

It's been two weeks and four days, since the horrifying incident at Blackwood Mountain. One day of intensive questioning from the police, two weeks of intensive physical care, and ongoing extensive psychological care.

The group have all physically healed, having mostly suffered scrapes, cuts, bruises and a pulled muscle or two. In fact, Mike would have said Jessica had the worst of it, if it wasn't for his left hand. His hand, for the most part, has healed. The joints, where his two fingers were cut off, ached at times but he's told this is normal. He continues to tie bandages around it as it somehow dulls the pain, but besides this it doesn't bother him much. He barely notices it anyways, his brain is too preoccupied.

Time feels like it drags on for Mike as lingering guilt continuously swims in the back of his mind. He can't sleep and he's caught himself, multiple times, staring at nothing in particular for hours on end. His mind wanders back to the mines, back to where he abandoned Josh in a selfish attempt for his own escape. It nags at him. Crawls under his skin, like a cockroach skittering across a grimy old kitchen floor. He can't live like this any longer, it's driving him insane.

He thinks this is how Josh must have felt after loosing his sisters. Remorse curling like a snake around his chess, slowly tightening its hold as it gets harder and harder to breathe. Persistent whispers haunt him. They blame him. They curse him. Tell him he doesn't deserve to continue living this mundane life. Why should he, he had no right. After all, didn't he take this away from Beth and Hannah. Didn't he take this away from Josh.

It grew, like a festering itch that wouldn't go away. The pain. The guilt. He pranked Hannah, and she ran from the humiliation. Beth followed and this resulted in their disappearance, which resulted in Josh's mental breakdown. He should have been there for Josh. Instead he left him down there in those dark mines. It was his fault. He was the one responsible. He killed Hannah. He killed Beth. He killed Josh. Or did he? There it was again. That small sliver of hope that kept him going. The possibility that Josh could still be alive. The possibility that he could do some good for once.

It was a ridiculous idea, he knew. But it was the only thing he could think of that would help.

He could go back to Blackwood Mountain. He could go back to save Josh. Or, at the very least, to find some form of closure to try and save himself. It's these thoughts that plague his mind as he sits in this pathetic attempt of a group therapy session.

They're all here. Sam, Chris, Ashley, Matt, Emily, and Jessica. They had there individual sessions of course, but had also been pushed to these as well. They were told it would help them realize they weren't alone, and that it would give them the opportunity to help each other. Mike only found these sessions reminders of his mistakes. Mistakes from having pointed a gun at Emily to not helping Jessica fast enough. For the most part they all seemed to have forgiving him, but he just couldn't forgive himself. Even if he had been in a state of panic.

They all sat in a sort of circle, Mike a little farther then the rest, on rickety old wooden chairs. The room was bathed in a hue of yellow tinted light, one of the ceiling lights flickering on and off in the corner. The windows were closed as it was raining outside but it only added to the stuffy atmosphere in the room. Their therapist hadn't arrived and wouldn't for another ten minutes or so. The group chatted silently about the smallest things, never directly mentioning anything too serious. They seemed closer, yet Mike never felt more apart. Sam hadn't even been able to close the ever growing distance Mike was creating between him and his friends. He'd sit in silence and only gave the shortest responses when needed. He just couldn't act like everything would be fine, like everything could go back to normal. But today was different. Today he'd tell them about his idea.

“Guys,” Mike said as he played with the bandages around his hand. The room had gone eerily silent, as they all turned to look at him. Mike hadn't initiated any form of conversation in days, and this small attempt to gained his friends attention had shocked them.

“What is it?” Sam questioned softly as to gently push Mike forward after a few moments of silence had passed.

“I was thinking of heading back to Blackwood,” Mike said slowly as he prepared for the immediate reaction he knew he would get.

“You gotta be out of your fucking mind if you think going back there is a good idea,” Emily all but spat. Matt had placed a firm hand on her shoulder as to keep her from bolting upright towards Mike. The rest eyed one another warily as to gain some kind of clue of how to approach the situation.

“I want to go look for Josh,” Mike explained. “I also need this for me.”

“Em is right,” Matt said still holding unto Emily's shoulder. “That's a terrible idea.”

Mike couldn't help but to grip his bandaged hand in a tight fist. He knew he would get this reaction, but still some side of him was hoping for some form of understanding. They didn't have to agree with him. He just wanted them to understand where he was coming from. He couldn't stay here anymore. He knew it wouldn't end well for him. He mused over the idea of a dark abyss too many times for his own liking. Thoughts like these scared him and it terrified him to know that these ideas, of falling into the void where his worries wouldn't be able to reach him, would one day be welcomed.

“They didn't find him,” Mike said while he stared at his hands, unable to bare looking at anyone else in the room. “That means he's somewhere still in those mines.”

Mike was referring to the search party lead by authorities, that had gone searching for Josh. However, the party was never heard from in days and so a second was sent out. When the second party came back, they brought with them the news that the first party had been found dead. They ruled it out as an animal attack, just like they had labeled the horrifying night that had previously occurred at the Washington Estate.

Mike and the others were seen as having been through too much trauma to comprehend the events of that night. They were told their brains fabricated some new form of reality to cope. Shared psychosis they called it. A psychiatric syndrome in which symptoms of delusions and hallucinations were shared by a group of individuals. But Mike and the others knew the truth.

As a result of the dead authorities, the search for Josh was discontinued, and his disappearance was believed to have been brought by this so called animal.

“Shut up,” Chris shouted, clearly agitated by the whole ordeal. “Josh is dead.”

Mike understood where Chris was coming from. Chris found himself having to get by with the idea that his best friend was either suffering out in those abandon mines alone or dead, and honestly the later sadly was the easiest to deal with and accept. But even if it were true, and Josh did turn out to be dead, Mike still wanted to go back.

“It's all my fault,” Mike whispered as he bent forward towards his knees and gripped his hands between his thighs as to stop them from shaking.

“It's not your fault,” this time it was Sam who spoke up having heard Mike over the heavy pouring of rain outside. “And if it is, we're just as much to blame as you are.”

“If I hadn't agreed to pranking Hannah,” Mike ignored Sam and continued. “If I hadn't abandoned Josh.”

“Mike—” Ashley started only to be cut off.

“Don't,” Mike shouted as he abruptly stood up from his chair, knocking it over with a loud clattering sound that rang throughout the room as it crashed against the porcelain floor. “I was the one who fucking left him there!”

Mike finally looked at the group that sat around him. They all looked at him in shock from his outburst. All but Emily who continued to watch him in anger, and Jessica who had never turned to look at him at all. Jessica who had sat in silence since the beginning and done nothing but stare at the nearest window with water running down its glass pane in heavy flowing streams.

He'd been avoiding her for the past two weeks. The last time he'd spoken with her was at the hospital, back when they were both admitted for their injuries. He had been thinking about it, but she had been the one to bring it up. The prospect of breaking up. She told Mike she knew that he cared for her, but it wasn't love, and that's what she needed. That's what she ached for now. To feel loved, to be comforted, and to be put first. But their relationship was never truly about love, was it. It was about pleasure. It was about the sex. At least for Mike that's what it had been about.

Mike understood, maybe he could have learned to love her, but he hadn't been the same since. Mike just couldn't stand to be looked at in such a sorrowful way, not when he knew he couldn't give her what she wanted. He couldn't give her what she needed. She had asked Mike if he could truly love her, but when he failed to reply and couldn't meet her gaze, they both knew it was over.

Maybe him leaving would be good for her too. After all he did still deeply care for Jessica. Perhaps his absence would help her to move forward, and him as well. She wouldn't have to turn her gaze to avoid looking at him. To avoid looking at what Mike could have been.

Mike calmed himself and stole his gaze away from Jessica as he ran a hand through his brown locks. The tremor in his hands had stopped and he turned around to pick up the toppled over chair.

“I'm going back,” he said. “Tomorrow.”

“This is so fucking stupid,” Emily hissed. “Why don't you get your head out of your ass.”

Mike had set his mind. There was no turning back. This would be his last chance to save himself. No amount of intolerance or disagreement from his friends could change that.

“I can't live like this anymore,” Mike said and it was then when his friends understood the meaning to his words. They had all sat there in silence and looked at Mike with various forms of pity in their eyes. It had made him feel sick.

“Do what you want,” said a familiar voice and Mike was shocked. “I won't tell.”

He had turned towards the voice only to meet Jessica's gaze.

“But I won't help you either,” she finalized.

“I wasn't asking for help,” Mike responded. However he couldn't help but think that it would have been nice, almost reassuring, if any one of them had offered to come. Despite this decision, he wasn't stupid, he knew it was extremely dangerous. They had every right and reason not to go back to Blackwood. Back to the now burnt down estate of the Washingtons.

“I'm leaving,” Mike said.

The door closed with a click as Mike went out the entrance and the rain continued to pour.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please feel free to leave any form of feedback. Even if it is you just clicking the kudos button. It motivates to write when I see people enjoying my work.  
> Also, I'm not being very strict on myself while writing this because it's meant for fun, so there may be some mistakes here or there. Constructive criticism is always welcomed.  
> Next chapter you'll get reader's backstory.


End file.
